Not too many came to watch them at the Eden today. The weather was no ally either, the hot sun beating down mercilessly. Yet, the two finalists in the Indira Priyadarshini Champions Trophy put up a spirited show. In the end, Indian Railways took the trophy, beating beating Air India by 23 runs.

Railways elected to bat. A first-wicket partnership of 84 between Rajni Venugopal and Vanita Viola helped them to a decent score of 210 for seven in 50 overs.

Rajni was caught-behind by India (and Air India) captain Anju Jain off Purnima Rau for 53. She hit nine fours. Vanita made 45 hard-earned runs from 91 balls before being stumped by Anju off Usha Bhogade.

Mithali Raj chipped in with 39 and wicketkeeper Arundhati Kirkire made a quickfire 36 from 39 balls. Opening bowler Jhulan Goswami was the most successful for Air India, bagging three for 44.

Poor catching by Air India helped the Railways cause. Eight catches were dropped, including two by the dependable Purnima off her own bowling.

For Air India, Anju played a waiting game. The other opener, India vice-captain Anjum Chopra, lashed out at a ball way outside the off stump to be caught-behind by Arundhati. She faced 16 balls without getting off the mark. That was at the score of 14, all of them scored by Anju.

Anju would have carried her bat but, for a misjudged single resulting in her being run out for 42.

But the star batswoman was former India skipper Purnima. Her swashbuckling 71 (off 84 balls) went in vain, though. Her impressive hard-hitting knock included nine fours, hit to almost every part of the ground.

After Purnima fell leg-before to Sunita Singh, left-arm spinner Neetu David ran through the lower half of the Air India line-up. But not before Mamta Kishan and Jhulan had put up some resistance with cameos of 14 and unbeaten 15, respectively. In between Smitha Harikrishna had contributed 22, all of them singles.

Air India managed 187 for nine when the overs ran out. Neetu was declared the Woman of the Match for her four for 27. Monica Preethi of Andhra Pradesh was named the Player of the Tournament.

BHA League

The BHA first division group B league tie between Police AC and Calcutta Parsee fell through today because of lack of markings and flag posts at the Howrah Union ground. Both teams and the umpires were present at the ground.

WARI 474/5 VS BAGAN

BY A STAFF REPORTER

Calcutta, April 15:

Arindam Das (162) and Saikat Mukherjee (130) put the Mohun Bagan attack to the sword, guiding Wari AC to 474 for five on the opening day of their J.C. Mukherjee Trophy semi-final today.

Arindam smashed 19 fours and three sixes, while Saikat struck hit 12 fours and six sixes. Suman Chakraborty chipped in with 55 which included five sixes.

In the other semi-final, Kalighat bowled out East Bengal for 269. Sanjib Sanyal did the maximum damage with a haul of five for 54. Narendra Singh Negi top-scored with 94.